Sunday, 16 December 2012

Burgos Campaign Update

After two months the campaign is still going strong.

We have just completed the seventh campaign day, and the
third campaign battle.Despite three
battles in three campaign days, we have managed to keep the momentum of the
campaign going, and still to the target of one campaign day each week.

All of this is largely due to the new concept of each player
having his own campaign area and objectives.In fact there are three areas, as shown above, and the six players in
the campaign are each fighting one opponent.

Each of the first three battles have taken place in a
different campaign area, so all players have experienced one battle each.It was fortunate that the battles were
spaced to take place on consecutive days.This was nothing to do with me, it was entirely due to player
choice.It allowed Jan and me to fight
each of the battles over the period of a week, just sufficient time for us to
complete a wargame.Had there been two
on the same campaign day it would have taken us two weeks to fight, and
resulted in a delay in the campaign.

As CinC of both the British and the French armies I have had
very little work to do.When one of the
corps commanders sends in a report I distribute the information to the other
two players.This gives a small degree
of cooperation within the two armies.But in general there is little support between corps commanders.

It’s unfortunate that the French managed to lose all three
battles, as this must result in a general retreat to the east.I had hoped that the battles might present a
problem to adjacent corps commanders.At the least it should have caused concerns about open flanks.But with a general retreat this will not
arise.

The other new introduction for this phase of the campaign is
the use of guerrilla bands.One in
each campaign area.They have caused
problems by cutting supplies and capturing messages.

In summary so far so good.It is also good to report that all six original players are still in
place.This has been a problem is
previous PBEM campaigns, when players have been known to disappear without
notice.I hope this is due to the
longer turn around from two to four days to write orders, and perhaps even that
it is more enjoyable for the players concerned.